BADULLA AND HAPUTALE
Ratnapura to Batticaloa—Festival cars—Polite priests—Belihul-Oya—A pink
rainbow—Badulla—Haldummulla—Haputale Pass—The railway—The Happy
Valley Mission—The Ella Pass—Badulla—Ants and ant-eaters—In
Madoolseme—Burning the forest—A Roman Catholic procession—Strange
compromises—Forest conservancy—Chena-farming—Lantana—The Park
Country—Rugam tank.
From Ratnapura we travelled by easy stages to Haldummulla, halting for
the nights at Pelmadulla, Belangoda, and Belihul-Oya, passing through
most beautiful scenery and meeting many exiles from the old country, to
whom the sight of other white faces was an unmistakable pleasure.
At Pelmadulla we explored the Buddhist Vihara, and noted with interest
the prevalence of triple symbolism: saints sitting on clouds, each
holding three lotus blossoms; three gods looking down from heaven on a
murder scene; three fishes, &c. To this the priests seemed to attach no
significance; and yet in their ordination service each question is
repeated thrice, which is surely suggestive of some mystic meaning.
I sketched a great gilded festival car, three storeys high, and two very
odd great gilded candelabra on wheels, each five storeys high, _i.e._,
with five tiers of crystal lamps on gilded and painted branches. These
are wheeled in procession with the great idol car, which is only taken
out once a year, at the April-May festival, which is that of the
Singhalese New Year.
The priests gathered round to watch the sketch, and my attendants
enlarged on the many sacred shrines which I had visited and sketched in
many lands. They declared that I had thereby indeed acquired much
merit![136] They were guilty of making such very complimentary speeches
that I could not resist putting the courtesy of one friendly priest to a
cruel test by asking whether he would be very sorry if, in his next
transmigration, he should be born a woman; whereupon he craftily
answered that _when_ that happened, _then_ he would be glad, which I
thought a very neat answer. But he dared not shake hands with anything
so bad in this life!
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Footnote 136:
Some are more discriminating. I was one day sketching in the temple of
Tiendong, a great Buddhist monastery in China, when a kindly old
priest, who had watched my work with great interest, asked quite sadly
what was the good, and what merit could there be in my doing all this,
if I did not really reverence the Poossas, _i.e._, the saints and
their images? See ‘Wanderings in China,’ vol. ii. p. 41.
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In all this district the climate is peculiarly favourable to the growth
of tropical plants; for while the great rock-ramparts receive and
refract the full heat of the sun’s burning rays, numerous streams rush
down from the mountains, keeping up an abundant supply of moisture. So
in this warm damp atmosphere all lovely things of the green world
flourish—exquisite tree-ferns and wonderful creepers, which interlace
the larger trees in an intricate network. Strange orchids find a niche
on many a bough, as do also very brilliant fungi, purple, yellow, or
red. One remarkable feature of these jungles is that one never sees a
dead tree; the white ants dispose of them all, except in the plantation
districts, where whole forests have been felled and burned, and the
number of charred trees fairly beats even these industrious workers,
whose huge nests, or rather castles, form such conspicuous features in
the forest.
In swampy places and along the banks of streams hereabouts there grows a
peculiar sort of bamboo, very tall and slim, and devoid of all lateral
branches. It seems to exist in order to supply ready-made fishing-rods.
The view from the rest-house at Belihul-Oya is especially charming; the
house stands on the brink of a clear rocky stream, which rising in the
grand Maha-Eliya, _alias_ Horton Plains, rushes down a deep-set valley
from a grand amphitheatre of intensely blue hills. A little lower it
assumes the name of Welawe-ganga, and so traverses the green province of
Uva.
Just before sunset the whole scene was transformed. Looking eastward,
the sky and hills were all flooded with the loveliest rose-colour, the
valley bathed in ethereal lilac, while the whole was spanned by a
strangely luminous yellow and pink rainbow, losing itself in a mass of
dark trees. I have never seen anything else in the least like that fairy
archway.
Brilliant dragonflies—some pure scarlet, others emerald-green—skimmed
over the surface of that bright stream, and many splendid butterflies
floated joyously in the sunshine. We also saw strange leaf-insects, so
like green leaves, that, till they flew away, it was impossible to
believe them to be alive; and grasshoppers with red bodies and bright
yellow crests hopped about us in most inquisitive style.
On the following day we drove on, always through lovely country and
along the base of great hills, whose tumbled fragments lay in huge
boulders at the base of precipitous crags, till we came to Haldummulla,
3,250 feet above the sea, where we were enfolded in genial kindness,
Miss Jermyn and I in one hospitable home, and the Bishop at another. A
number of the neighbours had assembled to meet the Bishop and attend the
Sunday services, which were held in the courthouse, and bright hearty
services they were.
It is a beautiful spot, lying as it does at the foot of a grand mountain
range, yet looking down over a vast expanse of cultivated land, chiefly
coffee, and a sea of forest through which flow hidden rivers, and far
away, seventy miles distant, lies the glittering sea, on which we could
sometimes distinguish ships, and before sunrise we could discern the sea
both to the east and south. From our next halt, at Haputale, we could
distinguish the exact position of far distant Hambantota by the gleaming
light on the saltpans.
We women-folk had two days of delightful rest amid these pleasant
surroundings, while the Bishop diverged to meet a party of planters and
hold service at Lamastotte. This was the first district in which coffee
estates struck me as really beautiful, these grand sweeping hillsides,
rising far above us on the one side, and on the other sloping down to
the low district outstretched before us, all clothed with the glossy
verdure of the low bushes, something like small Portugal laurels, and
all covered with fragrant blossom, white as newly fallen snow.
At that time King Coffee reigned supreme, and every available foot of
land was given up to this one culture, producing in most districts an
effect of great monotony. Since then it has passed through very evil
days, and in large districts has been wholly supplanted by tea and other
products; but it is pleasant to learn that in this district, where it
was so pre-eminently luxuriant, a large proportion has recovered, so
that coffee once more holds a foremost place in the province of Uva.
We left Haldummulla and all the warm-hearted friends there with much
regret, and mounted the steep ascent (all by admirable roads, both as
regards engineering and upkeep) till we reached the famous Haputale
Pass, 4,550 feet above the sea, where a small roadside village offered
rest and shelter to weary wayfarers, and a halting-place for the tired
bullocks which had dragged up heavily laden waggons.
Never has any place undergone more rapid change than has been wrought
here within the last two years. For the long-desired railway which is to
open up the province of Uva and bring it into direct communication with
Colombo, is to cross the dividing range at Patipola, which is just above
Haputale, at a height of 6,223 feet above the sea, thence descending to
the south-western plains.
Hitherto the railway terminus has been at Nanuoya, five miles from
Nuwara Eliya, and the difficulties of making a railway over the
twenty-five miles of mountain and crag which separate Nanuoya from
Haputale seemed well-nigh insurmountable. Now, however, all difficulties
are being conquered by skilful engineers and the patient toil of an army
of five thousand workers, chiefly Tamil coolies, but including many
Singhalese and Moormen—all, of course, under European direction. And for
all this great body of men daily rice and all other necessaries must be
provided, and the once quiet village of Haputale is now a centre of busy
life, and also unfortunately of a nest of too tempting arrack, beer, and
gin shops, to say nothing of an opium den, all of which are responsible
for a grave amount of crime and lawlessness.
The railway work is divided into two sections—one from Nanuoya to
Summit, passing below the Elk Plains, and crossing comparatively tame
grassy hills and patenas, but involving a rise of about 1,000 feet, the
other from Haputale to Summit, rising 1,673 feet over a rocky chaos of
shattered cliffs and ravines. At the actual summit there is a level of
about three miles, and at a point not far from there, in the direction
of Nanuoya, will be the station for the Horton Plains, the grand
sanatorium of the future, which lies only about three miles off the line
of railway; so that the weakest women and children will be able without
any conscious effort to breakfast at Colombo and sleep on these breezy
plains, where already a comfortable rest-house and most lovely garden
await their coming.
Little will travellers over the completed line dream what tremendous
difficulties have been overcome in preparing the way for their easy
journey over a region which can only be described as a chaos of huge
crags, break-neck precipices, dangerous and impassable gorges,
necessitating a continuous series of heavy cuttings, viaducts,
embankments, and long tunnels through solid rock. In the course of a
single mile seven tunnels follow in such rapid succession that
travellers will be sorely tantalised by too rapid glimpses of the
magnificent scenery all around—mountains seamed with rocky ravines,
clear sparkling streams glancing among huge boulders or dashing in
foaming cataracts over sheer precipices to the cultivated lands far
below; tea and coffee estates all sprinkled over with enormous rocks,
each as large as a cottage, and then the vast panorama of the sunny
lowlands of Uva, its vast expanses of grass-land and rice stretching
far, far away to the ocean.
But whatever they see can convey no idea of the toil and danger faced by
those who traced this road and commenced its construction—of their
hair-breadth escapes as they crept along rock ledges of crumbling quartz
or gneiss, with a wall of mountain above, and a sheer precipice below
from 300 to 500 feet in depth, or zigzagged by giddy tracks down the
face of crags where goats could scarcely climb for pleasure.
Still less will they realise how pitiless rains disheartened the coolies
and soddened the earth, occasioning terrible landslips, in one of which
seven poor fellows were buried alive, while another brought down a
thousand cubic yards of boulders, earth, and gravel. Awful gales
likewise, for days together, have positively endangered the lives of the
workers, and proved a powerful argument in favour of adhering to the
heavier carriages of a ‘broad gauge’ line, rather than yield to the
temptation of constructing a cheaper ‘narrow gauge’ as was urged by some
economists, and most vigorously and ceaselessly opposed by the veteran
Editor of the ‘Ceylon Observer.’
It is said that ‘a turn begun is half ended,’ and great was the joy of
the isolated planters on this side of the island when the long-desired
railway was actually commenced; and energetically has it been pushed on
by all concerned.
So my recollection of Haputale as a lonely mountain village will seem as
a dream of a remote past to those who now anticipate the time when it
will rank as a busy town.
Thence, leaving all beautiful scenery behind us, we drove about a couple
of miles down the pass to Bandarawella, which is all grassy, like an
average tract of English downs.
In this immediate neighbourhood another amazing transformation has
occurred, namely, the formation of the Haputale Happy Valley Mission,
where the Rev. Samuel Langdon, of the Wesleyan Mission, has originated a
whole group of excellent institutions, as a beginning of good work in
this hitherto most grievously neglected region—neglected because so
remote and isolated that till very recently comparatively few Europeans
found their way here, and still fewer knew anything of the wretchedly
poor and utterly ignorant inhabitants. Even old residents were startled
when they realised the existence of an agricultural population of about
180,000 Singhalese, besides many Tamils, inhabiting upwards of 800
villages, which are scattered over the numerous valleys among the grassy
foothills and downs which lie between the mountainous Central Province
and the ocean, forming part of a region about the size of Wales, which
has quite recently been created a distinct province, namely, that of
Uva.
In the whole of that vast district there were till within the last year
or two only eight schools for boys—not one for girls; and although in
some villages there are _pansala_, _i.e._, Buddhist-temple schools, in
most cases the priest in charge can neither read nor write himself;
indeed, in some large villages not one man, woman, or child can read.
Could Christian schools now be established in these villages, a very
great step would be gained, as otherwise the Government grant will go to
aid this wretched _pansala_ system of indigenous education, and it will
then be far more difficult to secure a footing than in the now vacant
field. But except in the town of Badulla and its immediate
neighbourhood, very little Christian work was attempted till quite
recently, the various missionary bodies being totally unable to find men
or money to carry it on.
Now small beginnings have been made by a very limited number of
Episcopal and Wesleyan missionaries, whose work consists chiefly in
walking from village to village, preaching to all who will listen to
them, and almost everywhere they are received with kindness, and their
message is often heard with apparent interest. Only in some places the
people are so sunk in misery and immorality that all their faculties are
dormant, and amendment seems to themselves impossible. They say, ‘We
must steal and sin if we would live. What you say is good, but it cannot
help us, surrounded as we are by poverty and vice and disease.’ The
almost invariable attitude towards religion of any sort is one of total
apathy, and even temporal discomfort is accepted as the inevitable
result of having failed to obtain merit in a previous stage of
existence.
Nowhere have these preachers met with any active opposition, but they
find a wide-spread dissatisfaction with Buddhism, and especially with
the priests, of whom these people frequently speak in terms of contempt.
Though some are nominally Roman Catholic, the majority, while
professedly Buddhist, are in truth devil-worshippers, sunk in depths of
gloomy superstition, and praying only to malignant spirits in order to
avert evil. As regards the beneficent teaching of Buddha, not only the
people, but even many of the priests, are so ignorant of its first
principles, that any argument founded thereon is utterly wasted; but
many listen gladly to preaching which tells of hope both for this life
and for the future. So the report of these pioneers is that everywhere
they find an open door, and that nothing save lack of men and of means
to support them prevent them from carrying the Word of Life to all these
800 villages.
Some years ago the Wesleyans opened a successful school for girls in
Badulla, till quite recently the only one in the whole of Uva, which, as
I have just observed, is a district about the size of Wales. Here about
fifty bright, happy-looking girls are now being well brought up in a
good Christian home, where they are taught clean, tidy habits, and are
trained to definite work, so as to be able in after years to earn their
own living.
Mr. Langdon, however, could not rest satisfied till a definite footing
had been obtained in the heart of the most neglected district, and
gradually his grand scheme took definite form.
Having obtained from Government a grant of 200 acres of fine
valley-patena at this spot, noted for good soil and a perfect climate,
with an annual rainfall of 90 inches, and within easy reach of about
9,000 of these poor villagers, he has established a home for orphans and
destitute children, where all shall receive ‘such a training as, under
God’s blessing, shall make them good, honest, and industrious men and
women.’ The children under nine years of age are taught in an elementary
school, and older ones in the industrial school.
Here also are a convalescent hospital and a hospital for children, where
bright wards gay with coloured prints and the loving care of skilful
attendants seem like a foretaste of heaven to the poor little sufferers
who are brought here from their miserable homes. But owing to scarcity
of funds, only a few wards are as yet furnished, and from the same cause
the devoted superintendent and his wife are often compelled to refuse
admission to the other departments, in many cases, especially that of
sorely tempted half-caste girls, where they know that rejection means
perdition.
In his very latest letter, Mr. Langdon tells of his grief at having been
compelled to refuse admission to poor little orphan children who were
without food or shelter, too young to work, but old in suffering; but he
had already received as many as he dared to undertake till funds
improve. This is the only home in Ceylon where starving children are
received without payment, but it is evident that it stands in great need
of further support.
At nine years of age girls are drafted off from the elementary school at
Haputale to a girls’ home and orphanage in Badulla, which was opened in
1889 to receive orphans and destitute girls; but so excellent is the
training there given, that the managers are besieged with requests to
receive the daughters of respectable parents as boarders, and it already
numbers fifty pupils. The tuition is the same as that given in the
Wesleyan Industrial School for Girls at Kandy, namely, all that can fit
girls for domestic service as nurses and under-ayahs, or for wise
housekeeping. They are taught cooking, biscuit-making, dress-making,
sock and stocking knitting, sewing, and mat-weaving.
No caste prejudices of any kind are allowed; the education is religious
throughout, without compulsion, no preference whatever being shown to
Christian children.
Boys are in like manner transferred when nine years of age to the
industrial school, which can receive nearly a hundred, but they remain
in the Happy Valley, and in its workshops are duly instructed in various
branches of industry, such as carpentry, smith-work, shoemaking, and
agriculture, and instead of growing up to be loafers and lying
vagabonds, they are taught to earn their own living, and to be truthful
and useful, and a comfort to their friends and neighbours.
Boys and girls are also educated according to the requirements of the
Public Instruction Code.
Many of the poor little creatures arrive at the Home in a most filthy
condition, apparently not having been washed for months, but allowed to
run wild in the villages, and even for weeks together in the jungle,
with no one to look after them in any way. Such is the raw material from
which Mr. Langdon hopes to produce valuable agents for the regeneration
of Uva, taking for his motto the verse, ‘A little child shall lead
them.’[137]
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Footnote 137:
‘Story of the Happy Valley Mission.’ By the Rev. Samuel Langdon.
London.
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A very important feature of the Mission is a reformatory home, the first
thing of the sort ever commenced in Ceylon. Its dormitories, offices,
teaching, and workrooms are all pronounced admirable, as are also the
flourishing farm and orchard, which are being worked entirely by lads
who, under the former system, would have been serving their
apprenticeship in crime in the various prisons of the Isle. The farm is
well stocked with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry, and it has a
small tea and coffee estate, rice-fields, garden, and dairy.
This reformatory, which is capable of accommodating a hundred boys, is
about three-quarters of a mile distant from the orphans’ home, so there
need not be injudicious amalgamation of young criminals with other lads,
till the former have started on a new tack, which is rarely long delayed
amid such totally new influences. The situation of the Mission is
perfect, being a beautiful elevated plateau in a very healthy isolated
situation. There is, however, a resident doctor to watch over the health
of this rapidly increasing community, and every account of it tells of
bright, happy young faces, already proving how truly they respond,
physically and morally, to the care bestowed on them.
Another good work now commenced for the benefit of various districts of
Uva and other hitherto neglected parts of the country has been the
establishment by Government of field-hospitals. A group of cottages with
mud walls and thatched roofs is erected in some isolated spot. These are
the wards, beside which a larger bungalow acts as dispensary and
dwelling for the medical officer and dispenser. Of course there is
always a little preliminary prejudice against foreign methods of
treating the sick, but very soon this is overcome, and the wards are
sometimes crowded with poor sufferers, thankful to have the opportunity
of obtaining skilled relief.
Leaving Bandarawala, we drove to the head of the Ella Pass, and suddenly
found ourselves looking down a magnificent valley formed by a whole
series of mountains, some crowned with majestic crags, some still
partially clothed in forest, others all terraced with infinite toil for
the cultivation of mountain-rice, and all alike vanishing from our view
in the deep blue gloom of the ravine far below. I am told that ‘Ella’
means a waterfall or rapid, which in this case must apply to the great
Magama River, which rushes down the gorge far out of sight, suggesting
during what countless ages the mountain torrent must have toiled and
fretted ere it carved for itself this mighty channel.
Beyond these nearer mountains lay outspread the beautiful Park Country,
stretching right away to Batticaloa and the sea. The district is well
named, for in truth it is one broad expanse of fine open park of good
pasture-land and sweet short grass, well watered by several large rivers
and numerous clear streams, and interspersed with clumps of fine old
trees. Near the base of the great central mountains are ranges of low
rocky ridges, partly clothed with tall lemon-grass, much higher than a
man, sometimes growing to a height of twelve feet. It is terribly
punishing to those who have to force a way through it. In some places it
is dense and tangled, in others it grows in tall tufts from the rock
crevices. Some of the plains are so covered with lemon-grass that, as
the wind sweeps over it, it is like an undulating sea of waving corn.
Right away from the mountains the Park itself is studded with detached
masses of granitic gneiss, like fortresses of giants, but beautified by
trees of large growth, which have contrived to find root in the
crevices.
There being no rest-house at this place, quite an ideal temporary
bungalow had been prepared for the Bishop—a framework of bamboos and
strong posts filled in and thatched with stout aloe leaves and jaggary
and talipot palm-leaves, all the inside being draped with calico, and
decorated with the graceful blossoms of the cocoa and areca palms (like
bunches of splendid wheat). This large bungalow was divided into central
dining-room, with side bedrooms and dressing-rooms all complete. A very
handsome pandal (arch of welcome) was erected in front of the house, and
a comfortable stable and house for the servants at the back. This really
was luxurious camping in the wilds!
Hearing of a small rock-temple in the Ella Pass, I started in search of
it. It proved rather a long expedition, ending in a scramble across
paddy-fields and along a hillside. It proved to be a very small temple
amid most picturesque surroundings, huge rock-boulders, fine old
Bo-trees, temple-trees loaded with fragrant blossom, and tall palms.
Within the temple are sundry odd paintings and images of coloured clay;
amongst others, one of a large cobra coiled up, with its head forming
the canopy above a small image of Buddha sitting cross-legged upon the
coils.
In looking over my sketches, I see that under a crag at the head of the
pass I have written Sri Pada Keta, which suggests its possession of a
holy foot-print, probably a modern imitation of that on Adam’s Peak.
Descending the pass by a steep zigzag road, and following the course of
a river fringed with luxuriant clumps of bamboo, we came to Oodawere, a
pretty and hospitable home, further embellished by a number of
‘potato-trees,’ which, as I have already mentioned, are really gorgeous
trees, robed in purple and gold,—that is to say, they are loaded with
blossoms like our brightest potato-flowers, only three times as big.
(This was in the month of August.)
Thence we drove on to Badulla, the capital of Uva, a very pretty little
town in the midst of a grassy and well-wooded and well-watered plain,
about 2,200 feet above the sea-level, and surrounded on every side by
fine hills of very varied form. There is a considerable amount of rice
culture round the town, which seems like an island crested with
cocoa-palms rising from a sea of velvety green. It was here that the
Buddhist people erected a neat Christian church to the memory of Major
Rogers, in token of their appreciation of his wise and impartial rule in
this district.[138]
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Footnote 138:
See Chapter viii.
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That church, which has now been considerably enlarged and beautified,
was charmingly decorated in honour of the Bishop’s arrival, and an
exceedingly graceful pandal was erected at the entrance to the
churchyard, the road for a considerable distance being bordered with
fringes of torn yellow banana-leaves, the effect of which, in connection
with the pandal, is very light and characteristic.
A number of Europeans had assembled to meet the Bishop, so there were
full congregations and pleasant social gatherings. Several Kandyan
chiefs appeared in their gorgeous full dress, with the large-sleeved
brocade jackets, ‘peg-top’ shaped swathing of fine muslin, and wonderful
jewelled hats.
I sketched the whole scene from the old fort, which is now used as a
courthouse, where many very varied groups of Moormen and Malays, Tamils,
Singhalese, and Burghers came and went the livelong day. Fine hills,
rich foliage, tall cocoa and areca palms, and cosy-looking red-tiled
buildings combined to make up a very attractive scene, blue and white
convolvulus matting the nearer shrubs, and the balmy air fragrant with
the scent of rosy oleanders.
I am told that among many recent improvements have been the formation of
a small lake, always a pleasant feature in a landscape, and also of a
park and racecourse. An excellent new feature is a botanic and
experimental garden for the acclimatising of all possible novelties in
the way of desirable fruit-trees and vegetables. Already the apples and
pears of Badulla are making their mark, and potatoes weighing upwards of
a pound each are a delightful reminder of Britain, dearer to her exiled
sons than the most ambrosial tropical fruits.
I found another sketching ground at the Kataragam Devale, an old Hindoo
temple to Skanda, the god of war, which attracted our unwilling
attention by the deafening noise of its ‘services’ daily at 5 A.M. and
all the evening—truly a very odious neighbour. The Buddhist Vihara was
happily less noisy. It and a dagoba of considerable size date from about
A.D. 200, so they are distinguished by some of the calm of old age;
otherwise Buddhist temples are wont to rival those of the Hindoo gods in
the terrific noise produced by the roar of shell-trumpets, the beating
of drums, and the shriek of shrill brass pipes.
I was told of a curious carved stone at another temple, on which is
sculptured a short two-headed snake, a sight of which was ‘good for
broken bones;’ so of course we set out in search of this interesting
object, but failed to find the temple.
But there are stones of more pathetic interest in the old cemetery, some
of which date as far back as the ‘rebellion’ of 1817-18, a time when the
lives of British officers and their wives in these remote forts must
have been sorely beset with anxieties. One crumbling stone marks the
grave of a young bride only sixteen years of age. Another marks that of
Mrs. Wilson, who came here from her home at Stratford-on-Avon, and died
in 1817, aged twenty-four. She was the wife of the Government Agent, who
shortly afterwards was shot by an arrow, and whose head was cut off and
exposed on a tall pole. Her grave is protected by the roots of a fine
old Bo-tree, which have enfolded it, thus marking it as sacred in the
eyes of the natives, to whom otherwise a neglected cemetery is simply a
valuable quarry whence to abstract ready-hewn flat stones just suitable
for grinding curry-stuffs upon! Of course this sacrilege is punished
when detected but its perpetration is easy and the temptation
ever-recurring, so that many and many an old gravestone has vanished in
all parts of the Isle.
In all this district we heard grievous complaints of the ravages wrought
by white ants, and of the ceaseless vigilance necessary to guard against
their advances. In native houses an extra plaster of cow-dung is applied
to the floors and walls, and is considered efficacious; but somehow
super-fastidious Europeans do not appreciate this remedy sufficiently to
introduce it into their homes! But certainly the white ants do muster
strong, their great earth castles, five or six feet in height, and six
or eight in circumference at the base, being common roadside objects.
Near some of the tanks the ground is strewn with little green hillocks
about three feet in height; these also are ant-hills overgrown with
grass.
The ants, of all sizes and colours, have two singular and very different
foes. One is the strange little ant-lion, which is the hideous larva of
an insect like a small dragonfly. It is an oblong hairy creature, only
about half an inch long, with a very large stomach and a very small
head. It has two large arms and six legs, with which it contrives to
move backward, but so slowly that it could never capture a dinner
without stratagem. So it makes a small funnel shaped pit in the sand,
and buries itself at the bottom with only its eyes and arms visible.
There it lies in wait for any rash ant which ventures too near the edge;
as soon as one does and begins to slip down-hill, the ant-lion throws
sand at it and so helps it down, when he sucks its life-juices and then
jerks out the corpse.
The other foe is on a much larger scale, and is known as the
great-scaled ant-eater[139]—a very different creature, however, from the
ugly hairy ant-eater[140] of South America, although, like it, it has no
vestige of teeth, only a long glutinous tongue with which to lick up the
ants. The Ceylonese and Indian ant-eater is clothed in a coat of mail,
being covered with hard plates of clear horn, and when frightened it
hides its head between its legs and curls its tail beneath it and right
over its head, which it covers completely, presenting the appearance of
an armour-plated ball. The strength of several men combined could not
uncoil that little creature against its will. Hence its common name,
‘pengolin,’ which is derived from a Malay word meaning ‘to roll up.’
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Footnote 139:
_Manis pentadactyla._
Footnote 140:
_Myrmecophaga._
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It breaks into the ants’ citadels with its sharp powerful claws, and
licks out the garrison with its long slender tongue. It is a pretty
creature, and grows to about three or four feet in length. Being easily
tamed and very gentle, it makes rather a nice pet, though its habit of
burrowing seven or eight feet into the ground makes it somewhat
troublesome, its claws being so powerful that it can dig through
anything. It climbs trees as nimbly as a cat, but is never seen by day.
It wanders about during the night, but steals back to its hole at dawn.
The Bishop’s next work lay in the district of Madoolseme. The first
stage was right up-hill to Passara, where there was a school to be
examined; then on to Yapane, above which rises a hill naturally
fortified by most singular ridges of gneiss. Then ‘upward, still
upward,’ till we reached Mahadova, where the owner of many nice dogs
gave us cordial welcome and most luxurious quarters.
Here we witnessed one of the most characteristic sights of Ceylon, and
one which remains stamped on my memory as one of the most awesomely
grand scenes it is possible to conceive. A tract of 160 acres of dense
forest, clothing both sides of a deep mountain gorge, had been felled,
and had lain for some weeks drying in the sun.
I may mention that the method of felling is ingenious as a means of
economising labour. Beginning at the lowest level, all the trees are
half cut through on the upper side; gradually the regiment of
woodcutters ascend, till at last they reach the summit, when the topmost
trees are entirely cut, and fall with a crash, carrying with them those
below, which in their turn fall on the next, and so on, like a row of
ninepins crashing all down the hillside, till the last ranks have
fallen, and the glory of the beautiful forest is a memory of the past,
only a few trees here and there remaining standing for a little longer.
When the timber is fairly dry, then the planter waits for a day when the
wind is moderate and in the right direction to blow the flames away from
his plantations or reserved forest, and then the blaze begins.
On the present occasion we were posted well to windward, and then fire
was applied simultaneously in many places, and spread with amazing
velocity, till all the fires joined in one wild raging sheet of flame in
the depths of the valley, whence fiery tongues shot heavenward mingled
with dense volumes of smoke of every conceivable colour, white, blue,
yellow, orange, and red, changing every moment and covering the whole
heaven with a hot lurid glow, while the thundering crash of falling
timber and roar of the mad flames were deafening.
We ran rather a narrow risk of contributing some particles of charcoal
to the coffee, having taken up a commanding position, so as to look
right down the gorge, in a corner of reserved forest, beneath the cool
green shade of a group of beautiful tree-ferns and beside a clear
streamlet, in which it was refreshing to bathe our scorched faces.
Happily we obeyed a shout from more experienced friends, who bade us
come down quickly, which we most unwillingly did, and only just in time;
for hardly had we done so, when the flames swept upward in resistless
fury like corkscrews, twining upward and onward. We rushed away
half-suffocated, and soon the whole patch of reserved forest was one sea
of fire, which even extended its ravages to some neighbouring coffee.
Next morning we had occasion to ride along a narrow path overlooking the
scene, and only a veil of blue smoke curling from among the blackened
ruins of the forest told of the mad conflagration of the previous day.
There is great luck in the matter of burns. Sometimes the fires die out
too soon, and the timber is insufficiently burnt. Sometimes they rage
too furiously, and the soil is scorched to such a depth as to be
grievously injured. No sooner is the land cooled than an army of coolies
overspread it, and cut square holes in every possible corner, no matter
how rocky the soil (indeed, the rockier the better), or how dizzy the
precipitous height; wherever a crevice can be found, there a precious
little bush must be inserted, and after a while, as its roots expand, a
small artificial terrace must probably be built, to afford them space
and prevent the rains from washing all the earth from their roots.
Nothing can be more hideous than the country at this stage.
After a while, however, matters improve, and by the time the coffee
shrubs attain their proper size, the whole country becomes densely
clothed with glossy green, and though the black stumps and great charred
trunks remain standing for many a year, they do gradually decay, or else
become so bleached by the sun that the coffee fields resemble a gigantic
cemetery, with headstones utterly without number.
Twice a year the whole country appears for a few days as if covered with
a light shower of snow, each bush being veiled with wreaths composed of
tufts of fragrant white blossom. These in due time give place to bunches
of green berries, which eventually become scarlet cherries, very
tempting to the eye, but insipid to the taste. Within these lie two
precious coffee-beans; the red pulp is removed by machinery, and is
useless, except as manure for the bushes—a sort of cannibalism is it
not? The beans are then dried in the sun, and the skin or ‘parchment’
with which each is coated must be removed, after which they are ready
for roasting.
When the coffee is dry, it is tied up in sacks of a given weight (each
so heavy that few Englishmen would care to carry it half a mile), and
these are carried by the coolies on their heads for many a weary mile
over hill and dale to the nearest cart-road.
The dress of the coolies is remarkable. Some indeed have little clothing
save an old grain sack covering the head and shoulders, and affording a
miserable shelter from the pitiless rain; but the majority are provided
with an old regimental coat, scarlet, blue, or green, no matter what
colour. So this is the final destination of our military old clothes! I
think their original wearers would scarcely recognise their trig apparel
when thus seen in combination with a turbaned head and lean black legs
swathed in dirty linen.
You cannot think what a new sensation in coffee it is to go and rest in
one of the great coffee stores, where the clean, dry beans are piled up
in huge heaps, like grain in a granary at home. The stores come in
useful for everything. All manner of public meetings, from church
services to balls, are held in them, and coffee-bags are the most
orthodox seat; rather hard, however; for comfort, commend me to the good
honest coffee heap, on which many a tired planter has slept without a
sigh for spring mattresses.
On that same day (August 30), at Mahadova, we chanced to witness another
strangely characteristic scene, namely, what the Tamil coolies
themselves described as a Catholic Saami (_i.e._, idol) festival. This
was a Roman Catholic procession, in which, however, I believe all the
coolies, of whatever creed, took part. We heard their shouts in the far
distance, and presently they came in sight, winding down a steep path
through the coffee, or rather winding up hill and down dale, in order to
visit all the Saami houses (_i.e._, idol shrines) in the neighbourhood,
carrying with them four almost life-sized images, in very tall, open
shrines, which were simply canopies on poles, painted crimson and
yellow. Much the largest of these, shaped like a gigantic crown,
contained an image of the Blessed Virgin; two of the others contained
St. Sebastian, and a fourth St. Anthony. All were borne on platforms on
men’s shoulders.
With the exception of the cross on the top of each shrine, and of
innumerable gaudy banners, there was nothing whatever to indicate that
this was not a Hindoo festival, accompanied by all the usual adjuncts—
the firing of guns, the beating of tom-toms, and wild dancing of
half-naked brown men with white turbans, dancing all the way, precisely
as at the festivals in honour of their gods, and led by the
temple-dancers.
When they had visited all the idol shrines, and danced a while at each,
they were to halt beside a stream, where all would bathe, preparatory to
a great feast of curry and rice, after which dancing was to be resumed
by torchlight.
Often when I hear thoughtless persons, who certainly cannot have looked
below the surface, compare the results of Protestant and Roman Catholic
missions in heathen lands, greatly to the credit of the latter, I wish
they could have a few opportunities of really observing the radical
change required in the converts of the former as compared with the mere
change of denomination which is accepted by the latter in every country
where I have seen the working of both missions. No wonder that their
converts are numerically large.
In Ceylon we were told of one Roman Catholic chapel in which, during the
temporary absence of the priest, the congregation had introduced three
images of Buddha and several others; and we ourselves saw a small Roman
Catholic chapel with the image of Buddha on one side and that of the
Blessed Virgin on the other, apparently receiving equal homage. I fancy,
however, that that also must have been without the leave of the priest.
The curious policy of seeking to beguile heathen nations into accepting
a spurious so-called Christianity by the closest possible assimilation
to their national pagan rites has unfortunately been very widely
sanctioned by the Church of Rome in all ages, but nowhere has it been
carried to such excess as in Southern India, whence these Tamil coolies
have immigrated.
In A.D. 1606, with the full sanction of the Provincial of the Jesuits,
and of the Archbishop of Goa, a Jesuit priest, Robert de Nobili,
established himself at Madura, where he asserted that he was a Brahman
of the West, directly descended from Brahma, and of the highest possible
caste.
He forged a sacred Veda purporting to be of high antiquity, in which
some Christian doctrines were cunningly blended with much Hindoo
imagery. In presence of a large assembly of Brahmans he swore to having
received this Esur Veda from Brahma himself.
This Brahman of Rome assumed the yellow robe of the venerated
Saniassees, and daily marked on his forehead the circular spot of
powdered sandal-wood which denotes caste. His small crucifix, hidden in
his waist-cloth, was suspended from a twisted thread very similar to
that worn by Brahmans. He carefully performed all ceremonial ablutions,
and certainly shrank from no self-denial in working out his strange
compromise, for he abjured all animal food—meat, fish, and even eggs,
confining himself to the vegetables, milk, and clarified butter which is
the fare of true Brahmans.
Moreover, the better to assert his superior position, and assuredly
forgetting the teaching of his Master, he associated only with Brahmans,
feigning the utmost contempt for all pariahs and other low-caste people.
He soon obtained credit for great wisdom and sanctity, and gained so
many adherents that he is said to have baptized 100,000 persons, largely
drawn from the higher castes—converts who naturally were not to be
distinguished from their heathen brethren in aught but name.
On the authority of his forged Veda, he prohibited the worship of the
Hindoo idols, but freely incorporated all the processions most dear to
the people. Amongst others he adopted all the tumultuous ceremonies of
the Juggernath night-festival, when huge gaily-decorated idol cars were
borrowed from the Tamil temples. So-called Christian images having been
temporarily substituted for those of the idols, and loaded with
offerings of flowers, the ponderous cars were dragged in procession by
excited crowds, amid the blaze of rockets and fireworks, the din of
tom-toms, drums, and trumpets, and the acclamations and shouts of the
people. Half-naked dancers streaked with vermilion and sandal-wood
powder, danced wildly before the cars, and all the crowd wore on their
foreheads the marks symbolic of idol-worship. Yet these, with the
exception of the dancers and musicians, who were hired from the nearest
heathen temple, were the so-called Christians of Madura, and the images
borne on the cars were supposed to represent the Saviour, the Blessed
Virgin, and the Apostles.
Franciscans, Dominicans, and other religious orders having complained of
his methods of carrying out mission-work, the matter was referred to
Rome, but after an inquiry which lasted thirteen years, the Pope
pronounced a decision which practically left things as they were, even
approving the wearing of the Brahminical thread by converts, provided it
was sprinkled with holy water, and that the converts were invested with
it by a Romish priest. They might also continue to mark their foreheads
with ashes of sandal-wood, provided they abstained from using ashes of
cow-dung.
Thus sanctioned, this sham Christianity flourished, till after forty-two
years of vain toil, de Nobili retired, sick at heart, and his followers
for the most part returned to their primitive Hindooism.
But till the expulsion of the Jesuits from India in 1759, there was no
limit to the compromises by which they sought to gain nominal converts.
Not content with attracting the heathen to their churches by elaborate
mystery-plays and theatrical representations of the great events in the
life of our Lord, these very adaptive teachers endeavoured to appeal to
popular prejudice by blending with their own religious ceremonials all
the most striking pageants of Hindooism, and, notwithstanding all the
edicts of Pope Gregory and his successors, these were retained until, in
1704, Pope Benedict XIV. issued a most rigorous Bull commanding their
suppression.
The Jesuits frankly confessed that obedience to the Papal decree would
result in the loss of most of their adherents, and so it proved.
Multitudes to whom the adoption of Christianity had been solely a change
of name resumed that of ‘Hindoo,’ and ere long the stringent regulation
was relaxed and the pitiful compromise resumed.
From Mahadova we rode to various other estates, sometimes through lovely
bits of ferny jungle, sometimes across great tracts of burnt forest,
with their wreaths of blue smoke still curling upwards from the
blackened waste which had taken the place of all the fair vegetation,
the growth of centuries.
To all lovers of beautiful nature it must be sad to think of the
hundreds of square miles of primeval forest which have thus been totally
destroyed in clearing ground for the growth of coffee, cinchona, and
tea, in all the mountain districts, the greater part of the belt of the
Isle between the altitudes of 3,000 to 5,000 feet being now totally
denuded.
But looking down from high mountains on the great plains seaward, we
still overlook vast expanses of forests—in fact, about three-fourths of
the eastern lowlands are said to be still forest or scrubby jungle, from
which the fine timber has all been cleared for commercial purposes. Till
quite recently there was no fully organised Forest Department to
regulate the ravages of the woodcutters, and certainly no sentimental
pity or reverence led these to spare either the monarchs of the forest
or the trees of tender years; consequently many of those most valued for
the beauty of their timber have now become exceedingly rare.
The necessity for such supervision was recognised so far back as 1858,
when Sir Henry Ward appointed my brother to act as timber and chena
inspector. But in those days travel was exceedingly difficult, and no
man could really attempt to do more than make himself acquainted with
the forests of his own province, which in my brother’s case meant the
neighbourhood of Batticaloa. Moreover, as his sole assistants were two
Government peons, it was evident that, keenly interested as he was in
this work, he could not do very much.
It was not till 1873 that Sir William Gregory laid the foundation of a
more systematic conservancy of forests by the appointment of four
foresters for the four northern provinces, and assistants for other
districts, whose duties include not merely checking improvident
destruction of existing timber, but also establishing in the
neighbourhood of the great tanks, nurseries for valuable forest trees.
My brother’s appointment as chena inspector refers to the singular
method of cultivation known as ‘chena-farming,’ which is a system of
nomadic farming involving perpetual locomotion, inasmuch as, owing to
the poverty of the soil, the same ground is never occupied for more than
two years at a time, and is then left to itself for fifteen years! This
strange custom has been adhered to for upwards of two thousand years, so
it follows that ‘primeval forests’ had been cleared off the plains long
before European planters felled those on the mountains. The extent of
ground which has been subject to this treatment is enormous.
The process of chena-farming is that the inhabitants of a district
proceed to fell and burn a tract of two or three hundred acres of
forest. This space is then fenced and apportioned to the number of
families concerned, each of whom erects a temporary hut. In these they
live in a cheery sort of gipsy fashion, some making and baking
earthenware vessels, and others spinning thread or rearing poultry,
while waiting for the growth of the crops they have sown.
In a few months the newly reclaimed land is rich with cotton plants,
sugar-cane, Indian-corn, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, millet, yams, melons,
and other vegetables. Some of these are ready for the market within four
months; so they are gathered, and fresh seed is sown for a second crop,
which is ready four months later, the cultivators all the while keeping
sentinels posted in little huts, ceaselessly watching day and night to
ward off incursions from thievish beasts and birds.
In the second year the company divides, some remaining to guard and
gather the cotton, which does not come to maturity for two years, the
others proceeding to clear new ground by felling and burning more
forest. When the cotton crop is gathered, then the last farm is
abandoned, and luxuriant natural growths rapidly spring up.
A good deal of chena is devoted to the growth of plantains, which are
very fine the first year, but deteriorate so much in the second year,
that by the third they are generally abandoned.
A marked characteristic of all land which has been thus suffered to
relapse is the density of the thorny jungle, with few, if any, large
trees, but a thick matting of rope-like creepers, many of which, and of
the bushes, are armed with wicked hooked thorns of every variety, making
the scrub impassable to any creature but an elephant.
Masses of prickly cactus grow luxuriantly on such clearings, as does
also the much-reviled lantana, which was introduced only about sixty
years ago, solely as an ornamental shrub. It is uncertain whether it was
brought from Brazil by Sir Hudson Lowe or from the West Indies by Lady
Horton. Its original home is the Cape of Good Hope, where, however, it
is by no means so rampant as in these lands of its adoption. It is a
pretty plant, covered with little bunches of orange and rose-coloured
flowers or small dark berries; the latter find great favour with birds,
who carry the seed in every direction, and it has acclimatised to such
good purpose, that now it springs up unbidden on every morsel of
neglected land, so that from the sealevel up to a height of 3,000 feet,
thousands of acres are covered with impenetrable thickets of this too
luxuriant colonist. Naturally all cultivators consider it an intolerable
nuisance, and rue the day of its introduction to Ceylon; but
nevertheless the lantana has its own useful mission to perform, in
securing for the land both shade and moisture, while by the ceaseless
decay of its rich foliage it gives new life to the worn-out soil,
preparing it afresh for the service of ungrateful humanity.
Since Government has awakened to the necessity of guarding the remaining
forests, this chena-cultivation is under control of surveyors, and the
sanction of the Government Agent is required before a new tract can be
thus treated; so the villagers are gradually learning to grow their
vegetables on more economic principles.
Leaving the mountainous region, we travelled north-east across that
known as the Park Country, on which we had looked down from the high
grounds—a great tract partly of forest, partly of open grass country and
of swampy rice-lands, but all intersected by very picturesque hill
ranges.
Until very recently, all this district abounded with game of all sorts,
which, however, has been so ruthlessly slaughtered, that it is now said
to be, practically speaking, exterminated. There are still large herds
of spotted deer and a good many of the Sambur deer—here called elk—but
very few compared with even ten years ago. A close season has been
appointed for the preservation of all manner of deer and other useful
and beautiful animals, but this ordinance is apparently respected only
by Europeans, and not invariably by them. As to the natives, they harry
the poor wild tribes day and night, in season and out of season, large
parties with guns, dogs, and nets lying in wait at the water-holes and
tanks where they must come to drink, so that the poor beasts have no
chance.
A Ceylon paper for July 1891 quotes advertisements showing that ‘27,453
Ceylon elk hides’ had been offered for sale in London since January,
and, while discrediting the figures, comments on the ruthless wholesale
slaughter which is undoubtedly carried on all the year round. It seems
probable that here, as in the United States, the wild creatures are
destined to be exterminated, and eventually replaced by more prosaic
herds of domesticated animals—cattle, sheep, and horses—who would
doubtless thrive in this grassy and well-timbered region, all of which
is apparently admirably adapted for pastoral purposes.
A minor drawback to these grassy plains in dry weather are the
innumerable ‘ticks’ which swarm in some places. These scarcely visible
black atoms get on to one’s clothes, and continue their travels till
they succeed in burying their heads in one’s skin, the sensation of the
victim being that of being pricked with a red-hot needle. Any attempt to
pluck them out only produces irritation, so it is best to leave these
unwelcome guests in peace till you can touch them with a drop of oil,
when they relax their hold. (The natives always have cocoa-nut oil at
hand to anoint their hair, and oh! the aroma thereof.) There is a larger
variety of this pest called the buffalo, but its bite is not nearly so
painful as that of its minute cousin. One comfort of rainy weather is
that these creatures then disappear.
One very annoying family are the innumerable minute ‘eye-flies,’ which
take pleasure in dancing as close as possible to one’s eyes, as if they
really found pleasure in beholding themselves mirrored therein.
It must be confessed that after a while the daily routine of marching is
apt to become somewhat tedious, almost every morning having to be up
soon after 5 A.M. packing, swallowing a hurried breakfast, and then
starting on a march which rarely exceeds twelve or fourteen miles, but
which is necessarily so slow that it is probably past ten before you
reach your destination, by which time the sun is pouring down in
scorching heat, and you are thankful indeed for the shadow of the
palm-leaf hut, or any other rough and ready rest-house.
Half the coolies always march at night, starting as soon as you have
dined, and the cook and table-servant can get the cooking pots and
dishes packed; so that you find your real breakfast ready on arriving,
and right welcome it is. By the time you have fed and washed, you are so
tired that you generally are thankful for an hour’s sleep, that you may
be fresh for the afternoon’s work or ramble, as the case may be.
Day by day, riding or driving, we moved from point to point. One pretty
drive lay through most charming jungle, literally swarming with
butterflies. We had to cross the Maha-Oya just at its junction with the
Dambera-Oya. A fine wide river-bed overshadowed by large trees suggested
what this stream must be when swollen by heavy rains in the mountains,
but now all was drought, and there was not even a trickle of water. We
walked across the sandy channel, while the horses dragged the empty
carriage, and a well-trained elephant, who was assisting in building a
bridge for the use of future travellers, lent his great strength to
shove the baggage-carts while the patient bullocks pulled them across.
I was struck here, as in many another district in the hot plains, with
two peculiar characteristics of several of the principal trees. One is
the thinness of their bark, as though Mother Nature knew they would only
require summer coats; the other is the extraordinary size and height of
their massive roots, which are thrown out on every side like buttresses,
evidently to enable the tree to resist the rushing of floods. These
buttresses are so high that full-grown men could stand in one
compartment unseen by their neighbours in the next division.
We had slept the two previous nights in miserable rest-houses, so it was
delightful to find this night’s quarters at Pulawella in a clean new
house, cosily placed in a patch of quiet jungle with peaceful meadows on
either side.
On the following day we found equally pleasant quarters at Rugam, near
the Rugam tank, to which we were escorted by a fine old village headman,
who remembered my brother vividly, as did also all the villagers, by
whom, said the old chief, he was immensely loved. They said he often
came here at night for sport in the days when the long-neglected lake
lay undisturbed in the silent forest and game of all sorts abounded.
At the time of our visit the tank was being restored, so we saw no large
animals, only a goodly family of crocodiles, and many radiant birds—
oriole, barbet, kingfisher, &c. The officer in charge of the works was
rejoiced to see white faces, the first he had seen for two months. He
bade a fisher cast his net in the now clear waters, and each cast
enclosed a multitude of fishes, which we carried back for the use of the
whole party.